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#52
11/05/2007, 10:20 PM
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I'm glad to hear everything else will be okay, and that salinity is more where you want it to be.
Leaving town can be so nerve-wracking, and no-one can ever know the pulse of your tank like you can. You can talk them to death, but they just don't know precisely what is going on and thus don't see what you see readily.
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Marc Levenson - member of DFWMAS |
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#53
11/06/2007, 08:29 PM
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Got the new test kits, NH4 and NO2 are still both undetectable.
I Threw the old kits out and dated the new ones. Now I have some prime on hand in case I need it so I dated it too. I have never dated my test kits so I'm starting now, they are all well over a year so I will be replacing them in the coming weeks. I borrowed a label maker so I have been re-labeling and trying to clean up some of the rats nest of wires. It looks like I need to replace my heaters, these WON Brothers suck. I have gone through 4 in the two years I have had the system, they look cool but start malfunctioning after a year. Any recommendations on what heater to get?
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Cprowler |
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#54
11/06/2007, 08:40 PM
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I still use Ebo Jagers myself. Some have had problems with them when the submerge the top section, which the Canadian-version clearly are marked to never submerge. The American-version doesn't have that limitation.
Running them submerged or not, they work for me. Glad your tank seems to be doing okay.
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Marc Levenson - member of DFWMAS |
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#55
11/06/2007, 08:49 PM
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I have used the Jallis and they are no better. I would look at what Aquatic-Eco offers. Are you having problems with the controllers or the elements? Fosters Smith has the Ranco Controllers for about the best price I have seen.
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Jonathan--DIBS Breeder and Card carrying member of the Square Skimmer Brigade (Click on the Red House to see my pics garage) |
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#56
11/06/2007, 09:54 PM
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The controller I guess, after about 14 months the display (tank temp) shows over 125 F keeping the heater from ever coming on. Same thing happened to all 4 all about the same time.
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Cprowler |
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#57
11/06/2007, 10:18 PM
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I have had two Won Bros, 1 shorted out to the water (quite the experience!!!) and the other just quit working, and I have had 4 Finnex Ti Heaters, 2 burned out (elements) although I think it was the RK2 with a .1 degree difference between on and off.
Now I have the Fish Cue Ti Heaters from Marine Depot. They seem to be good at heating, but the controllers are a bit off. I have two heaters and one reads 76.7 degrees and the other reads 77.8 degrees while my tank is actually at 80.2 degrees. So I just adjusted for the difference and they seem ok.
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If you have a college degree, you can be sure of one thing. You have a college degree! Superman owns Chuck Norris Pajamas!! |
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#58
11/06/2007, 10:24 PM
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I really think that when it comes to controllers, you have to step up to the higher end like Ranco. The others just seem to go bad all the time. Aquatic-Eco is a great place to research them and then branch out for pricing.
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Jonathan--DIBS Breeder and Card carrying member of the Square Skimmer Brigade (Click on the Red House to see my pics garage) |
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#59
11/06/2007, 11:55 PM
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Quote:
Apparently you can cut off the controller and use the titanium heating element with a REAL controller like a RANCO. You can actually recalibrate the Won Bros heaters though. See my description on how to do this... I was able to recalibrate one of them and it worked for a while, but then eventually drifted. Likely not worth the effort to fix 'em. 
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#61
11/07/2007, 10:37 AM
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Quote:
I went with the LiterMeter3 for my tanks ATO......for precisely that reason. Its saved me on two occasions when my skimmer went nuts and spilled water on the floor..... The thing I like about the LM3 is that it will only put the amount of water into the tank that its programmed for. Two downsides to this are: 1...evaporation rates change with the seasons in my house....(St Louis Mo) More in the winter, less in the humid summers. So you will be changing the rates from winter to summer etc.... 2...overtime, the amount of water delivered will drop due to the rollers needing to be cleaned. Minor issue, but keep in mind that when you clean the roller assembly out, the unit will now be delivering the full amount of water...so if you've neglected cleaning it for awhile, and have adjusted your delivery rates, (amount of water added to tank), you will be getting more water than you may have planned for. I will be setting up the LM3 on my 120 shortly, and I plan to write down the winter rates of evaporation, and also the summer rates of evaporation...that will give me some sort of a baseline to work from... Glad to hear things werent too bad out of the accident. Nick
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A good friend will come and bail you out of jail...but, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn, that was fun!" |
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#62
11/07/2007, 11:09 AM
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Another option could be the Tunze Universal Osmolator Automatic Water Top-Off. It's a bit expensive but it has an optical sensor for top off and a float for the too high sensor. Also it has a time out feature so that it will not run for longer than 10 minutes. If the optical sensor has not changed states after 10 minutes of pumping it creates and error and shuts off the pump.
The Optical sensor is very reliable, I've had mine for 4 years and only wipe it off occasionally (it's never failed) I have heard the pumps life span is short but I've never had a problem and the pumps are cheap J |
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#64
11/07/2007, 12:28 PM
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Didnt know the Osmolator would turn itself off after 10 minutes...
Thats a nice feature. I'm not so wild about about the float valves because I've heard waaay too many stories of something going wrong, (float valve fails, snail gets stuck in it etc....) Tunze does make a good product though... BTW, the LM3 is more expensive then the Osmolator IIRC.... Nick
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A good friend will come and bail you out of jail...but, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn, that was fun!" |
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#65
11/07/2007, 12:28 PM
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Thanks for the info everyone!
I'm leaning towards the Tunze ATO but will check out the LM3, I was hoping to install the new ATO in a new sump but may not want to wait. I have a Ebo Jager in my SW mixing barrel and will use that till I figure out what I want to use. Good to see you here Catherine.
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Cprowler |
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#66
11/07/2007, 12:38 PM
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The to high sensor is the float. and it is mounted upside down so the off state is down.
I haven't had problems because the sensor is in the sump and because it is the high water sensor it is not wet or at least you don't want it to be wet. J |
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#67
11/07/2007, 03:47 PM
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My Won Brothers heater controller on my ritteri tank, failed exactly in the same manner this last weekend. Said the tank was 181 degrees, although the "1" for the 100 was about twice as bright as the other two digits. Weird that so many failed in the same manner all around the same time. Must have been a DST thing
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-Tony My next hobby will be flooding my basement while repeatedly banging my head against a brick wall and tearing up $100 bills. Whee! |
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#68
11/08/2007, 06:13 PM
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I'm going back out of town tomorrow so I went to the LFS to see what I could get to fix my heater issue. I picked ip a Aqua Medic controller , I had a store credit and got a discount so I figured I would give it a try. I cut off a heating element from a WB and put a 3 prong plug on it and plugged in into the controller. It seems to work but I'll be keeping a close eye on it.
I also finished re-labeling the switches on the JD panels since they were not accurate from changes over the two years. Here are some pics. Flash  No flash  Closer with flash  Aqua Medic controller
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Cprowler |
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#70
11/08/2007, 06:20 PM
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Nice work. Another of my Jallis just went tits up...that's 3 out of 4 so far.
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Jonathan--DIBS Breeder and Card carrying member of the Square Skimmer Brigade (Click on the Red House to see my pics garage) |
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#71
11/08/2007, 06:22 PM
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Cprowler |
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#72
11/08/2007, 06:34 PM
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Actually, one of my buddies got that one, and so far it is working great.
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Jonathan--DIBS Breeder and Card carrying member of the Square Skimmer Brigade (Click on the Red House to see my pics garage) |
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#74
11/08/2007, 10:46 PM
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I outlined the two corals I lost, a Bali green Slimer and a Blue Acro. I lost 2 or 3 other small corals and a few tips are bleached on some others. My Green Millipora (2"x3") is bleached but the polyps still come out so I hope it makes it.
I hope that is the extent of the losses and now everything can recover. 
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Cprowler |
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#75
11/09/2007, 01:02 AM
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Quote:
Your on my list I leave with my wife. Next vacation I don't think I will have the wife's sister look after the tank, I will have to enlist a professional. 
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Cprowler |
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